"In an interview posted yesterday at The Digital Bits, but conducted at this year's CES, senior VP of Pioneer Electronics Andy Parsons comments that the company is expecting between 4 and 7 million units at the launch of the PlayStation 3.

He said, 'The PS3 is launching right at the forefront of Blu-ray Disc. If Sony ships the kind of numbers we expect them to this year, that will provide a very rapid growth of players out there hungry for titles. We've been hearing between 4 and 7 million units could ship.'

It's important to take his numbers with a huge grain of salt. For starters, Parsons' comments don't specify whether he's talking about worldwide figures or simply North America. Even if those are indeed worldwide figures, the low-end of his range is still at least 1 million consoles more than the 1 million units per territory estimate currently rumored. Additionally, the interview was conducted a couple of weeks ago, potentially making his vague figures obsolete. Finally, as an exec with Pioneer he's no doubt focused more on production of the Blu-Ray drive itself, while the real factor determining PS3 supply will likely be manufacturing chip yield of the Cell processor." [link]